Security forces in Iraq killed a jihadist from the Islamic State (IS) group on Saturday in an escape attempt with two other men from the extremist organization, all sentenced to life in prison, according to an official statement .
Read also Iraq: from Erbil to Sinjar, the difficult return of the displaced from the war against Daesh
A joint security force of the police and the army "
succeeded in thwarting the escape attempt of three terrorists sentenced to life imprisonment
," said a statement which did not give details of their identity.
They were held in Taji prison, north of Baghdad, according to the text.
The police opened fire "
when they saw them crossing the outer wall of the prison
".
"
They did not heed the warnings, one of them was killed, the other two surrendered
."
After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 in Iraq and neighboring Syria and the conquest of vast territories, IS has seen its "
caliphate
" falter under the impact of successive offensives in these two countries.
Iraq declared victory against the jihadists at the end of 2017 and ISIS was defeated in Syria in March 2019.
The jihadists remain a threat and continue to carry out attacks in these two countries.
Today ISIS "
maintains a largely clandestine presence in Iraq and Syria and leads a sustained insurgency on both sides of the border between the two countries
", according to a UN report published in early 2021. In these two countries, the jihadist organization would retain "
in all 10,000 active combatants
", according to this report.
